An apologist for Modi holds Rahul’s inquisition

Times Now Editor Arnab Goswami deserves a commendation certificate from the BJP and Narendra Modi in particular for carrying on unabashedly Rahul Gandhi-Congress bashing in the most blasé fashion, unapologetically showing his biases and prejudices. I wonder whether he or his channel would have the gumption to grill his hero Narendrabhai the same way. He must not have forgotten how this ‘Colossus’ slinked out of Karan Thapar’s interrview midway over one embarrassing question asked about the 2002 Gujarat pogrom. Arnab has also read how Modi interrupted an interview with his former colleague midway when the reporter for CNN-IBN asked a question on Gujarat pogrom, which had earlier been sent to him in the questionnaire but deleted by Modi. When the reporter still asked the question Modi spoke in the camera “Haven’t we paid them,” so stated the reporter in his written statement. We have also seen Rajdeep Sardesai being made to sit on the floor between Modi’s legs to take a byte of Hindu Hriday Samrat. I would love to see that spectacle repeat for Arnab Goswami for in any case this time his former patron saint L K Advani has no authority and if Arnab’s father wants a BJP ticket from Assam again as in 2009, he has to bend, crawl and supplicate before Narendra Modi.

But the main issue is about the comparison of Gujarat pogrom and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, oft propagated by the Sangh/BJP/Modi trio and drummed up by their many apologists in the media of whom Arnab Goswami is only one. Arnab stoutly defended Modi on some dubious rejection of Zakia Jafri’s petition by a lower court. Is Zakia lying? Has she made up the brutal killing of her husband, the former MP Ehsan Jafri? Did Ehsan Jafri not call up the Police Headquarters, the Gujarat ministers, Modi himself and the ministers in Delhi desperately seeking Police protection before the marauding crowd dragged him out, hacked him piece by piece and then burnt alive. Don’t we have the B N Sreekumar’s testimony or the now dead Haren Pandya’s from the beginning of the Gujarat Police deliberately and willfully aiding and abetting the VHP mob going around raping, setting on fire killing and hacking innocent Muslims all over the state at Modi’s instance? Haren Pandya’s poor father an ardent Sanghi, died pleding for justice for his dead son and punishment his wife contested against the BJP even in the last elections. Arnab does not have to go by my assertions he has the wherewithal to just go back and peruse through what George Fernandes the then Defence Minister of India had to report to the then Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee invoking a sharp rap from Vajpayee about Rajdharma. After all that, isn’t it shameful on the part of Arnab Goswami to quote some vague lower court order to acquit Modi of his involvement in the killing of thousands of Muslims in February-March, 2002. I want to see how ‘The Nation’ would want to ask Narendrabhai all this and would await whether the chhappan chahti would have he guts to sit through a real good grilling similar to Rahul’s inquisition. Since Arnab can only do Modi’s bidding, I offer myself to confront Modi with all this and more keeping Arnab by my side and the TV camera on.

Let us now return to the Sikh massacre of 1984. Surely what happened for three days in Delhi from October 31 to November 2, 1984 was unparalleled and we as young men then, who had not witnessed partition horrors, saw something like this for the first time ever. But let me remind him again it does not lie in the mouth of the BJP or its Sanghi apologists in the media to talk about it. Even today BJP is in alliance with Kuldeep Bishnoi in Haryana whose sole claim to fame is the legacy of his father Bhajan Lal, the pioneer in political corruption. But the number of Sikhs killed in Harayana during the same period was no less than in Delhi. The Sikhs of Haryana to date hate Bhajan Lal and vote for Om Prakash Chautala. Did the BJP not support Operation Blue Star? Advani, Vajpayee, et al constantly egged on Indira Gandhi to take strong action against Sikhs in the run up to the Operation Blue star. We are all aware of how most Sanghis had then crossed over to the Congress and abandoned the BJP bringing tis tally in the Lok Sabha to two and instead ensured the Congress victory in 1984 because they were happy and many of them actively participated in the anti-Sikh carnage of 1984. And why go so far back? The hero of all the Sanghis including Arnab Goswami is K P S Gill who has killed, raped and subjected to third degree torture many more Sikh youths, both male and female from Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and Amritsar districts than all the victims of October-November, 1984 Sikh carnage in Delhi. Surely Arnab must be in the know of the killing of J S Kalhra, who was investigating the truckful bodies of sikh youths that used to be brought to the cremation grounds in Amrtisar. But he is protected by the Sanghis and even paid a handsome amount each month from ‘The Pioneer’ kitty, and so the hypocritical Badals would also not move a finger against K P S Gill, be it the senior one or the juno and least of all Begum Harsmirat Kaur, for whom all thinking is done by Arun Jaitley.

Never mind that, let us return to Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Did anyone of them have even the remotest role in the 1984 carnage? Were anyone of them even remotely associated with the Congress party then? No. Yet they went to the GoldenTemple to pay obeisance and express regrets. The Sanghis and their masters forgave Giani Zail Singh who under his signatures ordered the bombardment of Harminder Saheb, after he went and shed crocodile tears later. Zail Singh’s agent provocateur Tarlochan Singh became a Rajya Sabha member of the BJP and now operates from Bibi Harsimrat Kaur’s bungalow. They forgave Buta Singh, though in their typical caste bias, made him polish shoes at the Deorhi. But Sonia, Rahul and Manmohan have always to be hauled over coals for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots? Why?

As for Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, would this Sanghi apologist Arnab tell us which court ever indicted Tytler or Sajjan Kumar? Arent they too, like Modi and Amit Shah, not entitled to due legal process? What is good for the goose is not good for the gander? Why has BJP, which claims to be on the side of the Sikhs all along not been able to place on record substantial evidence to nail Sajjan Kumar and Tytler? I’ll tell you why? Because if you open that cupboard, so many BJP/Sangh skeletons may also tumble out. So the best thing is to keep harping upon 1984 to deflect attention from 2002.